As a result, his movie was all but lost and, while Clint would go on to win two Oscars for directing, Powell would have great difficulty finding work for some time after Tom's release. Tom, however, was directed by one Michael Powell, who, while having a few strong films, such as The Red Shoes (1948), under his belt by 1960, didn't have the name recognition of Hitchcock. Hence, all the controversy which surrounded his film ended up simply enhancing his career and made Psycho the template by which all movies involving psychopaths-and even some that don't, such as Jaws (1975)-have since been judged. One major difference, though, is that Hitchcock was already world famous by the time he made Psycho. Both films were quite controversial upon their releases, with Tom being released three months before the Hitchcock film. In this case, the 'other' thriller was Psycho. However, that would not be the case for Peeping Tom, a film which, like Misty, was ahead of its time and overshadowed by another thriller in its year of release. In his book Clint: A Retrospective, Richard Schickel notes in his review of Misty that, in the years since the film's release, audiences just kept rediscovering it, especially when the overrated Fatal Attraction (1987) lifted elements from it.

Nonetheless, the fact that he starred in two thrillers and a period piece which stretched his acting muscles and fulfilled his lifelong dream of directing all in the same year ensured that westerns were just one genre Clint excelled at. The irony here, of course, is that Eastwood also starred in that film, which remains, arguably, his most famous. But Misty was overshadowed in its year of release by a more famous but equally potent thriller, Dirty Harry. 'Imagine.someone coming towards you.who wants to kill you.regardless of the consequences.'Īs I noted in my review of The Beguiled, Play Misty for Me was an ahead-of-its-time thriller which may have an entry on this blog were it not for the fact that its star and then-novice director, Clint Eastwood, hadn't already become a world-famous actor.

Matt barker from wish upon a star movie